Roberto Opalio: Chants From Isolated Ghosts (Opax)
Purchased used at Jerry's Records
I posted yesterday that I wanted to find something in my collection so obscure, I didn't remember it myself. I do remember buying this, a few years ago, but knew nothing about the artist or his group My Cat Is An Alien. Good band name.
Why would I buy this without tracking through it first? Probably the comment written by the Jerry's staff on the plastic outer sleeve: "Rare noise - lathe cut - clear vinyl - edition of 50".
Yup. I know they don't sell things like this to only me, but definitely I could have been one of the customers in mind when that was written.
I will look over anything at Jerry's that looks like something's been done by hand. Hell, I put out a small edition LP myself, 300 pressed, 269 publicly available copies (the highest prime number under 300), and I affixed a label to every copy, and did collage art for all public copies.
So yes, I got hooked in. I don't recall how much I paid but it couldn't have been that much. The cover image is printed on translucent stock, with some custom scribbling in silver pen over the front image. The information indicated this is copy #42 of 50. So exclusive! (There have been several CD editions of this recording, so I should feel too special about myself.)
The notes read, "Recorded at home Nov. 2004 no overdubs" (his emphasis). Maybe so, but it sounds as though some tape is playing in the background, or the rhythmic humming of a machine of some sort. There's distorted banging on a glockenspiel maybe? Distant-sounding quietly sung vocals, and some sort of open guitar tuning banged out. At least that's what I'm guessing. That's side one.
Side two...more of the same sound sources, more droney electronics.
I don't know, the further I continue with this narrative, the less point it seems to write about this. Not as eerily insane as Jandek, not a particularly interesting improvisor. But hey, only 50 copies!
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